U.S. Dist. Judge Royce Lamberth ruled Oct. 1 that the Communications Workers of America failed to inform about 50,000 affiliated workers that they didn’t have to pay full dues. Workers who pay a fee to the union for collective bargaining representation but don’t become full union members were awarded damages in the class-action suit sponsored by the National Right to Work Foundation. Any of the workers who didn’t want to pay for work the union did outside of collective bargaining, such as political advocacy, from 1987-95 can request reimbursement for a portion of their dues. A NRTW foundation spokesman Stefan Gleason called Lamberth’s ruling a “monumental decision on behalf of workers across the country. Not only will it allow these abused workers to exercise their rights not to pay for union activities that they object to in the future, but it will also allow them to be reimbursed for the abuses against those rights in the past.” [A.P. 10/1/98]
